Hiring Hoosiers is a new initiative from WRTV that works to connect Hoosiers to employment opportunities, career development resources, training programs and educational paths. In our Hiring Hoosiers reports we are taking a closer look at barriers to employment and things that get in the way of people getting the jobs they need to support themselves and their families. For more information, visit HiringHoosiers.com. See new stories weekdays at 6 a.m. on WRTV.
INDIANAPOLIS — A Broad Ripple based tech company has a tool that has been around for more than a decade that is really coming into good use now to keep face-time up while people stay behind computer screens to maintain social distancing.
WRTV first looked at Covideo in 2019 as the used local resources to recruit former Hoosiers back to Indiana as talent at their company. Now, the pandemic is giving Covideo a boost in business-demand causing them to need to hire more people.
COVID-19 has changed everything for the most part and life at Ivy Tech Community College is no different.
Ginny Leonard is the director of student success and retention at Ivy Tech. The safest way for her to engage with students currently is virtually.
Now, the already established Broad Ripple-based business is coming into play now more than ever.
"I thought this could be a really great tool for our students," Leonard said. "We know that students will watch a video for a couple of minutes more so than they will read a long email."
Ivy Tech started using the video messaging service from Covideo in August. For Leonard, the tool helps her connect with students when in-person face-time is not an option.
"Especially when you serve a large population of first-generation students, you know, they need to feel like this is a place where they belong," Leonard said. "And that they have people there to support them. And putting a face to a name makes a huge difference."
Covideo has been in business for 15 years and has more than 30,000 customers around the world.
"A lot of universities have moved to online learning which you know gets in the way of the face to face interaction that students typically have with their professors or teachers," said Elizabeth Abram, the vice president of sales and marketing at Covideo. "So universities are using this to maintain that facetime and keep students engaged."
Just in the last six months, Covideo has added 50 colleges and universities to its clientele.
According to Covideo's database, video engagement has increased by 40% since March, with the pandemic changing how people are interacting.
With more business, the video messaging company needs more Hoosiers hired onto their team.
"We were prepared yes, but we are also hiring," Abrams said. "We are hiring on all fronts: sales side, support, developers, just with the increase, not even just colleges and universities, but industries and professionals across the board are turning to video and so we are ramping up."
It is a tool to keep each other connected and engaged as we rebound into a new way of working and learning.
"We know that by sending a personalized video email first of all, if you put the word 'video' and a person's first name in the subject line, you are going to increase your open rates by 19%," Abram said. "If you open that email and you see somebody in the body of the email waving, smiling, they have got a whiteboard with your name on it, you are going to see an increase of upward of 65%. But the biggest impact is your response rate, these videos, they are easy to create, they make a lasting impression and we have seen an increase of 200% for response rates."
Abram says if business keeps increasing for Covideo as the pace that it is at, they will be hiring moving into next year as well.
To join Covideo’s team, you can visit its website.
